Joanne Vanish Creighton (born 1942) is an American academic who served as the 16th President of Mount Holyoke College in South Hadley, Massachusetts, from 1996 to 2010.
She has a Master of Arts in Teaching from the Harvard Graduate School of Education, and a Ph.D. in English literature from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.
[1] She was chosen, in part, due to her history as an advocate for the tradition of American liberal arts colleges[2] (Creighton has commented that such an education is "at its best, revolutionary.
"[4] This involvement would later be credited as leading to the further development of Mount Holyoke: "it is a testament to the cohesive sense of purpose articulated in two strategic plans, shared across the institution, and so carefully nurtured by Joanne Creighton's artful leadership.
[8] Creighton handled the widely publicized suspension of Professor Joseph J. Ellis, a historian who admitted lying to students about having served in Vietnam.